People v. Redford

194 Cal. App. 2d 200, 14 Cal. Rptr. 866, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 1806
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 24, 1961
DocketCrim. 1581
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 194 Cal. App. 2d 200 (People v. Redford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Redford, 194 Cal. App. 2d 200, 14 Cal. Rptr. 866, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 1806 (Cal. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

SHEPARD, Acting P. J.,

This is an appeal from a judgment finding defendant guilty of the crime of kidnapping and sentencing defendant to the custody of the Director of Corrections for the period provided by law.

Facts

The facts shown by the record before us are substantially as follows: Defendant was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, the crimes of kidnapping (violation of Pen. Code, § 207 (count 1), and sexual perversion by force with a 5-year-old girl child, as is described in Penal Code section 288a (count 3). Other counts were dismissed.

It appears that defendant, in the early evening of December 31, 1960, went into the yard of a home in Santa Ana, where he saw through the window a 5-year-old girl. He attracted her attention and enticed her out of the house. He then grabbed *203 her and carried her away in his truck. At a later time that night, he repeatedly, by force, committed the act of oral copulation on her sex organ. In the early morning hours of January 1, 1961, in a city in another county a considerable distance from her home, he abandoned her on a deserted street, where she eventually was found, cold, hungry and crying, by a milkman evidently making his early morning rounds. All of these acts were fully and freely admitted by defendant.

It further appears that defendant already had a long criminal record, he having been convicted in 1947 of drunken joyriding ; in 1950 of grand theft, auto; in 1951 of indecent exposure; in 1956 of disturbing the peace resulting from exhibitionism; and in 1957 of drunken joy-riding. In addition, in 1958 in another county he was convicted of an offense similar to the one charged in count 3, above noted. Sexual psychopathy proceedings were therein instituted. He was found to be a sexual psychopath, and committed to the state hospital for treatment in accordance with the provisions of Welfare and Institutions Code sections 5500 et seq. He had been released from the hospital as no longer a menace to society, and had been granted probation by the court in which he had been found guilty, and was on probation at the time he committed the present offenses.

Upon the plea of guilty, entered January 10, 1961, to count 1 (kidnapping), defendant requested probation, the matter was referred to the probation officer for report, and the time for hearing the probation officer’s report and for judgment was set for February 10, 1961, at 9:30 a. m. On the plea of guilty to count 3 (violation of Pen. Code, § 288a), entered also on January 10, 1961, a hearing on sexual psychopathy pursuant to sections 5500 et seq. of the Welfare and Institutions Code was set for hearing February 10, 1961, at 9 :30 a. m. Doctors were appointed, and a report ordered. At the time set, both matters were heard on the same calendar by the same judge. On count 1, defendant’s application for probation was denied and he was sentenced to the custody of the State Director of Corrections for the period provided by law. In the sexual psychopathy proceeding under count 3, he was adjudged a sexual psychopath and committed to the state hospital for the preliminary examination period provided by law. The court, at the same time, ordered that the execution of the sentence on count 1 take precedence over the sexual psychopathy commitment under count 3.

*204 The Problem

It is the contention of defendant that by the provisions of Welfare and Institutions Code the trial judge’s hands were tied in that he was mandatorily required to give precedence to the commitment to the state hospital made under the proceedings under count 3. We are unable to agree with that contention.

Revocation op Probation

It has already been held in People v. Wells, 112 Cal.App.2d 672 [246 P.2d 1023], that when a person who has previously been convicted of an offense of the kind here under discussion, who has taken the treatment in the state hospital as provided by law, and who has been returned to the court and placed on probation, commits a new offense, it is the right of the trial court to revoke probation and to commit the defendant to prison without further recourse to sexual psychopathy treatment. As was said in that case, at page 674 [3] :

“The primary purpose of the law was to protect society against the activities of sexual perverts. [Citations.] It was never the purpose of the Sexual Psychopathy Law to set up a legal by-pass whereby certain privileged perverts would be kept in mental hospitals for a short time and then turned loose. Sexual psychopaths are to be returned to society when, and only when the superior court is positively convinced that they are no longer dangerous to children.”

Character op Proceedings

A proceeding under Welfare and Institutions Code sections 5500 et seq., even though at times it is engrafted into a criminal ease, is not itself criminal in nature. It is a civil proceeding. Furthermore, a person who is adjudged a sexual psychopath is not thereby adjudged to be insane. (In re Keddy, 105 Cal.App.2d 215, 217-218 [3-6] [233 P.2d 159].) While the result of the sexual psychopathy proceedings may influence the final judgment of the trial court in the criminal case in which such proceedings are engrafted, nevertheless a sexual psychopathy proceeding is not in lieu of, but rather is in addition to, the criminal proceeding. (People v. Gross, 115 Cal.App.2d 502, 505 [4-5] [252 P.2d 416].)

Crimes Charged Separately Considered

A person who commits one or more separate crimes, even though under the authority of Penal Code section 954 *205 he be charged with such crimes in separate counts of the same information, is nevertheless subject to separate punishment and separate consideration for each crime. The counts may even be tried separately. As was said in People v. Carr, 6 Cal.2d 227, 228 [1] [57 P.2d 489] :

“The use of a single information is sanctioned by law and is a decided convenience, but in no way does it change the separable character of the offenses charged, nor does it alter the rules governing punishment.” (See also People v. Goldstein, 158 Cal.App.2d 86, 89 [3] [322 P.2d 253].)

It is clear, therefore, that both offenses are entitled to separate treatment, and neither is legally dependent on the treatment or even the existence of the other unless the terms of the law specifically compel such dependency.

Application of Mandate

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Bluebook (online)
194 Cal. App. 2d 200, 14 Cal. Rptr. 866, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 1806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-redford-calctapp-1961.